Reinforcements
by Reader128
Summary: John was bound to have old contacts from his military days. What if he called one of them for help after the fall?


Dr. John Hamish Watson, formerly of Her Majesty's service, had gone through a lot during his life. Dealing with an alcoholic sister that blamed him for at least part of her relationship issues, going through medical school, basic training, Afghanistan, being invalided home, and then the year with Sherlock had prepared him for almost anything. However, nothing could've prepared him for Sherlock's apparent suicide and the fallout from his last case. It had happened only a week ago, and he still couldn't wrap his head around it. There was no way anyone could be that good an actor to fake everything that Sherlock had done. John's life had taken a somewhat sharp downturn in the last week considering that reporters had been, and still were, trying to corner him for an interview. He had been lucky to escape charges from punching the chief inspector (as well as one overzealous reporter that had lied to Mrs. Hudson to get a statement). Mrs. Hudson had cried the night of the fall, but she was being very strong about the whole thing, not shedding a single tear at the media circus that the funeral had turned into. The reporters there were hunting for blood and neither of them would give them the pleasure. Now, he was faced with a dilemma, how would he get Sherlock's reputation back? If he could do that, then he could mourn in peace.

He had spent the last few days trying to figure it out. He knew he needed help. Lestrade was out: he was already in trouble for letting Sherlock onto crime scenes in the first place. Mycroft may be able to help, but John still wasn't ready to talk to him because of his part in what happened. Donovan and Anderson both hated Sherlock and wouldn't lift a finger to help… they had never believed that Sherlock would stay on the side of right and had gone around Lestrade to hurt Sherlock. John could not forgive that at the moment. Maybe he was thinking about people too close to the problem. Everyone who knew Sherlock either hated him or couldn't understand him. Sherlock himself had said that he only had one real friend. John would have to find someone who didn't know the genius if his idea was going to work. Maybe it was time to get in touch with the one person he knew that could find anyone and anything... He still had the man's phone number from a few months ago when all of his old buddies had been in town. He just hoped that it still worked.

As the phone was ringing, he barely had any time to think about his request before he heard a voice say, "Hello."

"I'm looking for Commander Spencer. This is Captain John Watson. I need his help," he said, not recognizing the voice that had answered.

"Eliot! Your phone was ringing! I answered it!" the voice yelled.

"Dammit, Parker, what have I told you about stealing my stuff?!" Eliot's voiced sounded over the speaker.

"But it's instinct! I can't help it. Plus, it was just so easy. It was just sitting there."

"Give me the phone."

"Okay. He said his name is John Watson. Do you know him?"

"Captain Watson?" it seemed like Eliot had finally gotten his phone back from the woman he called Parker.

"It's been a long time, Eliot."

"That it has. I take it that something happened?"

"I need your help. It's been a bad week here, and now I need someone who can help me figure out what actually happened. I just… I need a genius to help so I can mourn my best friend without reporters dragging his name through the mud like they have been doing. The problem is that the police either can't help or hated him and won't. I don't know what to do, and you're the only person I know that might be able to help."

"Tell me what happened."

So John did, he told his friend everything that had happened during the last year, starting with meeting Sherlock at St. Bart's and ending with the funeral, "It was a circus, Eliot, they turned it into a bloody circus. They are calling it the biggest scandal of the decade. Not even Lestrade could stop them because of the trouble that he is in with the chief inspector."

"John, I might know someone who can help, but I'll have to get back to you."

"Please, I need this done quickly. They're going to reopen all of his cases if someone can't prove him right. I know that many of the ones he put behind bars will appeal if they do that. I also know that I will go to jail if they figure out what happened during our first case together. I might end up there anyway if the reporters don't leave Mrs. Hudson alone. One has already threatened to press charges and would've if he hadn't been in my flat when I knocked him out."

"Let me bring tell my team about it. You said the details were in your blog online?"

"Most of them, yeah, but I had to leave out one or two things here and there… like Sherlock trying to drug me a couple of months ago."

"Alright, I'll call you back as soon as we go through everything."

"Thank you."

Eliot hung up the phone without answering. John was glad to be doing something, even if telling the whole story had been painful. Eliot Spencer had always been the most resourceful person he knew, both in the Army and out. If he couldn't find something to help, then no one could.

-Page Break-

Eliot hadn't heard from John Watson in a long time. They met in Afghanistan when the group Eliot had been with had been attacked and were sent to a British base to be patched up before moving on. This had been years ago, before he joined the team that had become his family. Watson became a good friend in the weeks they had both been at the base. Watson showed him how to do basic battle field medicine at a higher level in exchange for fighting lessons geared more towards a shorter person… moves that were well above the level their respective armies had taught them. For weeks, they had swapped whatever skills they could think of. Both were fast learners, so those weeks had helped them both a lot. Those skills had helped Eliot patch up the team many times over the last three and a half years and had saved John's life during the incident that got him sent home. Eliot tried to keep up with his friends that he met over the years, and someone like Watson being invalided home was a big deal... there was a medal ceremony and everything. Eliot would've gone to it, but he was busy helping Nate escape from prison that day and couldn't make it. Six months ago, he heard that a few of his buddies were going to London while they were on leave. Eliot got in touch with them and made sure they knew his number. They must've given it to Watson. Now, he just had to find out if the team would take the job.

-Page Break-

"Alright, this is our client, Dr. John Watson. He's got one sister, Harriet, divorced. His mother killed his father in self-defense years ago and then drank herself to death six years after that. He joined the army to put himself through college and medical school. About one year ago, he was sent home after a sniper shot him in the shoulder as he was trying to save another soldier's life. The man had been shot in the leg and would've died. Captain Watson carried him to safety after the shooter was taken out by someone on their squad. He was sent to a therapist but stopped going after two months. He had been staying in what amounts to a dorm provided by the army. Then he met this man, Sherlock Holmes and started sharing an apartment with him. From what I could find, Sherlock is a certified genius. He was arrested several times on drug charges, but none of them are on his official record. Five years ago, he went into rehab at a very private center. His older brother, Mycroft Holmes, is apparently a low level member of the British government, but if you look past that, you can see that he basically runs it. I couldn't find anything on him beyond that. In the past two years, Sherlock has consulted on hundreds of cases, helping Scotland Yard put dozens of murderers and thieves behind bars. Six months ago, they went up against someone who was strapping bombs to innocent people and using them to give clues to Holmes and Watson. The _game_ ended in a draw, and the guy got away.

"They continued taking cases and becoming more and more famous until just over a week ago. They were sent to help a government official find his two children who had been kidnapped from their school. Holmes and Watson tracked them down to an abandoned factory on the edge of London and found out that they had been given candy in mercury coated wrappers. That night, the police went to the apartment they shared and tried to arrest Holmes for the kidnapping. Watson was arrested for punching the chief inspector. The two were handcuffed together and escaped before they were even put in a police car. The next morning, Watson was seen getting out of a taxi at their place. He went in but came back out immediately and got back in a taxi. According to traffic cameras, he went to a teaching hospital called St. Bartholomew's where he had gone to school. He then got a phone call from Holmes. The video shows them talking for a few minutes and then Holmes jumped off the roof. The media turned on them and has been trying to completely destroy their reputations ever since, saying that Holmes was a fraud who set everything up. Reporters have been camping outside of Watson's apartment. One got inside, but he came out a few minutes later with a fractured jaw. None have tried to get inside since then, but it's just a matter of time before they try again," Hardison said, ending his part of the briefing.

"If we don't clear Holmes's name, then every case he worked on will have to be reopened," Nate said. (He and Sophie had just come back from their honeymoon and had been asked to help out on this one case since the case was based in London, and no one knew the area better than Sophie.)

"Whether Holmes was guilty of the kidnapping or not, we can't let his cases reopen," Eliot told them. "John told me that Moriarty was responsible for both the bombings and the kidnapping."

"So, how do we clear his name?" Parker asked.

"We prove that Moriarty was a real person, and that Richard Brook is the fake. If we can do that, then we need to prove that he is the one behind the bombings and kidnapping. Those two cases were the ones that made everyone think Holmes is a fraud."

"So, how do we get in to see the files?" Sophie asked

"None of you are going to like this plan," Nate told them. "We're going to give the credit to Sterling in exchange for him telling everyone that we are his consultants."

-Page Break-

"No," Sterling stated the moment he answered the phone.

"You haven't even heard the offer yet," Nate told him.

"I don't need to. Whatever it is will undoubtedly be highly illegal. I told you that we are even after I let you get in the car with Sophie at Highpoint Tower. There is nothing you can offer me that will convince me to help you."

"What about credit for solving the Sherlock Holmes mystery?" Nate stated, smirking slightly.

"… What do you need from me?" Sterling asked, curious.

"We need you to tell New Scotland Yard that we are Interpol consultants looking into the Holmes case because of the number of art thieves you want to keep behind bars."

"Nate," Hardison called, running into the room, "I found James Moriarty! He's in the…. Am I interrupting something?"

"Just a talk with Sterling. What did you find, Hardison?"

"James Moriarty AKA Richard Brook is in the Black Book. He's real, and he has a web of crime that makes some of our cons look tame."

"Sterling, we can prove that James Moriarty is real and that Rich Brook is a fake. Are you interested now?"

"Okay, I can get you in, but I can't guarantee that you will be welcomed. From what I have heard, you will only have one ally, and he's not exactly the chief inspector's favorite boy right now."

"Eh, we've worked with less help. Send Hardison the details as you get them. We'll be on the next plane to London."

"Nate, if any of Moriarty's people are still working on his orders even after his death, you need to be careful. He nearly blew up London, and that was when he was by himself."

"That's why we work best as a team, Sterling," Nate told him as he ended the call. "Hardison, what else have you found?"

Hardison grinned as the two walked back into the office, "Oh, you won't believe the amount of information I've dug up."

Hardison spent the next forty minutes telling them everything they needed to know about James Moriarty, including his Black Book file and everything he could find on known associates.

Then, Nate took over, "Sterling is going to get us Interpol credentials. We are going in as consultants. Remember that the people at New Scotland Yard do not like Holmes. The only person we can count on to help is Lestrade. Outside of NSY, we can definitely count on Eliot's friend. He'll probably know who else will help."

"Holmes has a huge underground following. London has been covered in graffiti over the last week… all of it proclaiming belief in him."

"Right, we'll also have to deal with the media. Cameras are covering Watson's apartment, so we're going to need to get both him and Mrs. Hudson out of there and to the station so we can talk to them. While we're playing police consultants, we need to actually solve the crime."

"I'll get John and the housekeeper out of the house," Eliot told them.

"What do you need me to do?" Parker asked.

"Based on Watson's blog, some of the police hate Holmes. I need you to disappear before we get there so that we can keep them off guard. They will be expecting five of us. While you're gone, check out the locations where Moriarty committed his crimes. See what you can find that the police missed because they were too busy chasing after Holmes. Hardison, you're going to work with the cameras. Get everything you can. Sophie, we are going to keep the police attention on us and find out what they know. They might have details that they're trying to ignore. Eliot, you're with Watson. Have him help you get in touch with Holmes's supporters. He's bound to know several of them." He waited until everyone had nodded before adding, "Let's go steal New Scotland Yard."

**A.N./Disclaimer: I don't own either fandom or the characters (though technically Sherlock Holmes and all of its characters is public domain now….) I many add more to this at a later date, but I seriously doubt it. I'm not good at writing long stories. If you want to take the idea and run with it, be my guest, just tell me first please.**


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